Header$type=menu

Archive Pages Design$type=blogging

Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils - Maryam Kabeer Faye

Seekers of truth exist in every age. As increasingly we are living in a world where people have less and less time for the Essence, we are often tempted to think that in this age of Wall-Street, stock exchange, hot jobs in the corporation and credit card crunch – who would have time to seek those matters that has very less to do with the perishing material world but all to do with the everlasting hereafter, the Kingdom about which every Messenger transmitted to humanity. The Quran promises: “falan tajida lisunnati Allahi tabdeelan, wa lan tajida lisunnati Allahi tahweela” - You will never find in the way of Allah any change, and you will never find in the way of Allah any alteration.” (The Quran 35:43).

Thus the Way remains always open and the seekers are drawn into the irresistible attraction of the Divine yearning in this age like every age in the past for the Divine is The Irresistable, al-Qahhar.

Maryam Kabeer Faye is one of such contemporary seeker who was pulled by the Divine yearning to seek and embarked on an extra-ordinary journey that continues in our time. Out of her journey came the wonderful book called, "JOURNEY THROUGH TEN THOUSAND VEILS, The Alchemy of Transformation on the Sufi Path."

About the book, Marcia Hermansen, Director of Islamic Studies Program at Loyola University writes, "From 1960s Berkeley to India, Iran, Jerusalem, Europe, Sri Lanka and Senegal - Shaykha Maryam Kabeer Faye's amazing account of a spiritual odyssey through religious traditions describes her encounters with some of the great guides of the past 40 years and continually offers fresh vistas and deep insights. This is Islamic Sufism from the inside; powerful, authentic, and inspiring. Read this book and believe."

2.Upcoming Interview with Shaykha Maryam Kabeer Faye

I recently received permission from Shaykha Maryam to interview her for the readers of Technology of the Heart. In this post I would like to introduce Shaykha Maryam Kabeer Faye, her extra ordinary journey in spiritual seeking and her wonderful book, Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils. In this post I have compiled reviews of the book and her past interviews to give a glimpse of her journey and background as well. Being a contemporary seeker and now a Sufi Teacher, Shaykha Maryam is an important exemplar of our time.

3.

An Extra-Ordinary Journey

When she
was twelve years old, Maryam Kabeer Faye was given a painted scroll of
an ancient wanderer, upon which were inscribed the words: Seek and The
Truth Shall Make You Free. This message galvanized her soul and
determined the course of her life. Following the
call, she set out on the journey, internally and then externally, and
was guided around the world many times, from one remarkable being to the
next, everywhere collecting messages and clues.

Born
in a Jewish family, she was led to live in India and Nepal, and in
monasteries in Europe, and then guided to embrace Islam at the hands of
an ancient Sufi Master a few minutes away from the tomb of the Prophet
Abraham. She then was guided to study intensively with Sufi Masters
around the world. Her journey to the holy places and people of the
earth, led her finally to Africa and the deep truth that all lives are
totally interconnected and united with our own. This profound
realization dispelled the great myth that the creations of the One Most
Loving Creator can be separated by any racial, national, or cultural
distinctions. Guided in her journey of profound transformation
and illumination to many extraordinary places and understandings,
ultimately to the realization of the deep truth that all lives are
connected and united in the oneness of the Creator.

This
book is a significant and revealing social commentary, also dispelling
many other myths and stereotypes such as the proposition, often fostered
by the media, that women are inevitably oppressed in Islam. On the
contrary, it is by entering into the heart of Islam that the author was
liberated, elevated, empowered, and guided to realize the true purpose
of her existence.

Kabeer Faye paints a picture of a
glorious, golden chain of individuals of all faiths and types who
welcome her, contribute to her progress, and accompany her along her
way. Descriptions of the many lands she explores and the regions she
traverses are intense, vivid and colorful.

Among them
are her childhood and early youth in sixties’ California, her
experiences of the warmth and hospitality shown to her in Afghanistan
and Pakistan before the region became wracked by war, and a moving
description of her pilgrimage to Mecca that reveals its inner meaning to
a believer of deep faith.

The stages of the inner
journey are revealed synchronistically with the outer journey, which led
her to so many realms. Her encounters with masters and teachers of
various faith traditions in India, Europe, the Middle East, and America,
and then culminating in Africa, are recalled with insight and
reflection, and she makes many astute observations about how their
teaching is heard and understood differently by people in different
states of awareness. By the will of God, her journey into the heart of Islam was directed by
Sufi Masters she was destined to meet: Sheikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen in Sri
Lanka and Philadelphia, Sheikh Abdoulaye Dieye and Sheikh Aly Nadaw in
Senegal and other parts of the world . Under their guidance, she found
the eternal truth brought by all the prophets and messengers sent by God
to humanity. Her quest for liberating truth and divine knowledge led
her to Sheikh Harun Rashid Faye of Senegal, West Africa, from whom she
received the blessing of the Mustafawiyya Tariqat. Through intensive
training, she became a Sheikha in this noble Sufi Order.

A journey of leaving the world as we know it in
order to return to the Source, Journey through Ten Thousand Veils is the
story of striving to give up the world while still remaining in the
world, to make the return to the light.

4.What Others say about Shaykha Maryam Kabeer Faye and her Book

Sheikha Maryam Kabeer Faye takes us on an exciting journey from California to Afghanistan, from India to the French Alps, from Jerusalem to Senegal, in search for a realized Master who can reflect and unveil the hidden knowledge within her. The book plunges the reader into the experience of her discovery of the beauty within all of monotheistic religions, manifesting ultimately as one sole message, revealing the nature of the One Creator, the Only Sustainer. The history narrated in this extraordinary book is not literature, but a practical guide, based upon living experience, for any sincere traveler in search of spiritual transformation and opening to the inner truth. - Dr. Mansur Escudero, President of Junta Islamica, Spain

Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils contains Shaykha Maryam Kabeer Faye’s autobiographical account of her life long search to become closer to God, ultimately via Sufism, in Islam, and what journey it is! The memoir is all the more impressive, because the author is a historical person in her own right, with a unique experience ranging from the counter cultural milieu of 1960’s California to encounters with various eastern Masters popular in the “new age”, to a long and studied absorption in a number of different Sufi orders and discipleship under their inspired Shaykhs. This book will be highly valuable to any seekers of God, as Faye examines all of the multiple dimensions of a quest. It is also a treasure as a record of a precious and significant part of American Muslim History. The author’s frankness and sincerity through all the variety of what she has discovered make reading her book a memorable experience. - Khalid Yahya Blankinship, Chair of the Department of Religion, Temple University, Phila, PA

With the hard-won key forged from her extensive and adventurous God-seeking world wanderings, Shaykha Maryam, an exemplary Sufi teacher, is given entrance to the world of West African Sufism with its rich mystical tradition. Her journey with her son to Medina and Mecca, and their visit to the Kabah, is probably the most exaltedly symphonic and overwhelming of her pivotal experiences in the book, in her relentless search for transformative liberation and the Truth of Certainty. - Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore (Poet, The Ecstatic Exchange)

5.Interviews: Audio, Video and Text media

Maryam Kabeer Faye being a speaker and writer on Islam, sufism, and spirituality also travels extensively throughout the world on the mission of building bridges of light, knowledge, and understanding. Below are some of her interviews in other media.

++ Your Question to Shaykha Maryam: For the upcoming Interview to be published here, if you would like to ask a question for Shaykha Maryam, which will be
part of the interview, please post your question as comment to this blog
post by clicking here.